Welcome to the Quilter's Academy Journal

Hello!Harriet and I are glad you visited... we established this blog as a sort of question and answer forum for all of you who are working through the Quilter's Academy book series.It is also a place to find a list of the errata from the books-You can find those by looking back through the archived blogs.So, welcome, and please post a comment if you have any questions or topics you would like us to discuss.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

I was teaching in Arizona last week and wanted to report on what made the class really go smooth - Big Boards! Are you ironing on a regular ironing board with a squishy pad and cover? If you don't know about Big Boards, they are 22" x 60" and is made of hard plywood. We put a think layer of cotton batting (like Hobbs Natural) on the wood surface and then cover it with a heavier cotton cover. The hardness of the board helps the iron really push the seam allowances over themselves without distortion. The softer ironing boards and pads can cause quite a bit of distortion. Also a good heavy iron is really helpful. We LOVE the Digital Velocity by Reliable. Have had them in our classroom for a few years now without a bit of trouble. The 20 students in Arizona kept saying by the end of the class that they now figured out it is really about pressing and trimming! If you are working through Quilters Academy Vol 1. let us know how you are doing.

We are editing Volume 2 next week and it should be out in May. We are also finishing up the writing and the quilts for Volume 3 and REALLY excited about this book! Once you get the precision down in Volumes 1 and 2, the designing and fun with triangles in Volume 3 will be really exciting. Imagine - you will be learning to achieve beautiful piecing AND design your own original quilts!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Below is a list of the corrections that a few of our readers have brought to our attention so far. We apologize for these problems, but they are a good way for you to check to see if you are able to catch them. The Townsquare project on page 63 is going to be turned into a mid-term exam, giving you a chance to see if you can work out the correct answers. We have had several students tell us they thought this is how we set it up. We wish we had of thought of that, as it is a good check on your progress for making your own recipes.

Please email us with any questions you may have about these or other things in the book.

Corrections for Quilt Academy Volume 1

Page 12 In the note box, it should be 112, not 12

Page 41 Harriet's Triple Rail Fence Project:Make sure you read after the * on the bottom of the page, starting with "* To determine how many strip sets.... " The yardage is not wrong, but if you just cut the number of strips we tell you to cut it will seem that way...

Page 81 - this is fairly obvious, but the 18" side of a fat quarter is the lengthwise grain and the 22" side is the crosswisegrain

Page 87 - we have been told that there are a few confusing things here. After step 2, we meant you need a total of 36 segments for rows 1, 2, 4, and 5 - not 36 for each.Rows 2 and 4 - there is no need for white stripsUnder Making Block A - For Row 3, you need 1 strip blue, 2 strips pink and 2 strips white.

Now that we have Volume 1 in the series on the shelves and Volume 2 is on it's way in May, we thought it might be helpful for you to find out more info and ask questions here. You will also get updates on errors found or patterns for quilts we didn't include in the books.

Fair warning- we are not terribly technologically driven and are giving birth to a new "baby book" every nine months from now until 2013, so we may not update this weekly or even monthly. But, we will do our best to keep in touch with you as you work through this series of books.

We are so excited about the opportunity to offer this series of books to you, and that you are willing to do the work and take the course.